Whether or not you want to perform a deadlift, the lessons learned from it can benefit you in many areas of life. We all need to bend down and pick up items, so it's important to do this safely and efficiently.
If there is one exercise to improve your overall strength, it is the deadlift. There is also no better judge of your strength than the deadlift. It is a phenomenal way to enhance the strength of your posterior chain. Posterior chain, the area from the heels to the back of your skull. This is the same area that gives way to the rounded geriatric posture often seen in younger people. What appears to be a straightforward exercise is often performed poorly. You will walk into any gym and see deadlift positions that are not strengthening the posterior chain, but in fact creating future patients.
Let's dive into the details of a great deadlift. When using a bar for the deadlift, ensure the bar is in contact with your shins. When using a suitcase deadlift, the weights should be to the sides of your feet. Foot position is somewhat variable according to your anatomy. A retroverted hip has excessive external and limited internal hip rotation. They need to stand in a strong toe-out position. If you have an anteverted hip position, characterized by excessive internal rotation and relatively reduced external rotation, your toes should be straight ahead. A neutral hip and slight toe out position works best. The width between your feet is also very personal. It will be approximately the same width as when you squat. For most, it will be approximately shoulder width, your typical athletic stance.
Next, where you fix your eyes will determine to a great extent the posture you will bring toward the deadlift. The goal here is a neutral spine. How do you know if you are neutral? When in the bottom position, have someone place a dowel rod along your spine, from the back of the skull to the base of the sacrum, between the shoulder blades. Keeping the head in a neutral position, while looking up with the eyes only, will help increase neuro-drive to the posterior chain, exciting the muscles to create a greater contraction.
The next step you often see world-class powerlifters perform, and people in the gym rarely do, is supinating the foot. Raise the arch of the foot to create a stronger loading platform. This is done by rotating the knees out, similar to riding a horse. If the center of your knee caps had flashlights, the lights would be turned out.
A critical step to supercharge your core, especially the pelvic floor, is to perform a full, deep diaphragmatic breath. Many of us will require one-on-one training to learn how to perform. When breathing in, expand your belly 360 degrees. The breath should be taken when still standing over the bar, right before bending forward. This is also the time to press your tongue against the roof of your mouth. The same position when you are swallowing.
Next, how we reach for the bar is critical. Don't start the process by bending your knees; instead, shift your hips back, which causes your chest to move forward. Our greatest power position is achieved by pushing our hips back as far as possible. You can see this in world records, deadlifts, sprinting, jumping, and tackling. For years, it was taught to keep the chest tall and then bring the knee forward. We were told this is lifting with our legs; nothing could be further from the truth. Hips way back, chest forward with a strong arch in your low back. This is actually how a two-year-old will bend over and pick up.
When in the bottom position of the deadlift, the lower leg should be completely vertical. If you see the position from the side, the knee should be directly over the heel. This is the big difference between the bottom of the squat and the deadlift. In the squat, the knee can move forward to the midfoot or arch. It is very important to have a vertical lower leg in the deadlift. This motion is performed while holding your breath.
Now, very importantly, when grasping the bar, you should have the ability to lower the hips another 10-15 degrees without losing the arch in your back or letting your knee drift forward over the midfoot. If you can't, the bar is too low for your flexibility. You cannot repeatedly pull at the edge of your flexibility without getting broken. You need a buffer zone; put a bumper or two under your weight to raise the bar. Don't use strength training to develop your flexibility. First, get your flexibility and stability before applying the strength exercise. When gripping the bar, use a double overhand grip for as long as your hand strength allows. The width will, in part, work in harmony with foot width. If the feet are wider, the grip will be inside; in a narrower stance, the grip will be outside the shins.
Finally, let's pull the weight off the ground. There are three distinct parts to the pull. First, the lift should begin not with the lower body, but the upper body, pulling the shoulder blades down and back and exaggerating the lower back arch. This gives the impression that you are trying to bend the bar across your shins. You'll often see lifters skip this step, driving with their lower body first and pushing their hips up, which rounds their back—a complete loss of posterior chain integrity.
The second part of the pull involves your lower body driving through the heels to lift the weight off the ground. If the bar slipped out of your hands at this phase, you would go tumbling backward. If you feel your weight shifting to the balls of your feet or your heels start to leave the ground, drop the weight; you are not engaging your posterior chain correctly.
The final phase of the pull occurs once the weight has left the ground; at this point, the lifter should focus on driving their hips forward under the weight. The motion transforms from a pull, lift to a hip thrust forward.
I've noticed that people often keep their hips somewhat bent or flexed in the gym after finishing the lift. You have not completed the lift if you have not reached terminal hip extension. At the top of the lift, squeeze your glutes tightly together and contract your abdominal muscles to maintain a proper neutral spine; avoid letting your hips sway forward. The greatest athletes are those best at reaching terminal hip extension with power. That is your ability to jump, sprint, and hurl objects.
I need to go back to breathing. I left you holding your breath, bent forward, gripping the bar. I would keep holding breath to maintain maximum abdominal brace until you move through the sticking point area before momentum is on your side, and then aggressively blowing out through pursed lips to the top of the lift. In your mind, at the tops of the lift, you are being punched in the gut and at the same time kicked in the butt.
Lowering the weight may be the most vulnerable time for your lower back during the lift; take a quick, deep abdominal breath and brace your abdomen. First, the lifter moves the hips back, maintaining a strong, low back arched position, then lowers the weight by sliding it down the thighs before dropping it.
If you think you might be rounding your lower back during the lift, a good method to test if you are is to lie flat on your stomach in a fully relaxed position. Have someone run athletic tape up either side of the lower back and attach it to the top of the glutes. If, when lifting, you feel a pulling on your skin, drop the weight; you have broken form.
To own the exercise, it takes a lot of reps to groove the pattern. Forget about weight and focus on mastering the form.
